Книги по живописи

This richly illustrated catalogue documents the exhibition organized by the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, in partnership with the State Russian Museum, St Petersburg. Featuring celebrated paintings by such pioneering artists as Wasilii Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin and Natalia Goncharova, it also includes the work of more than 20 other innovative artists of the Russian avant-garde, some of whose art has rarely been reproduced in colour.

These intriguing paintings are juxtaposed with native Russian arts and crafts, including religious icons, popular prints, textiles, and even children's toys, to explore the influence of folk art on the Russian avant-garde during the early decades of the 20th century.

These objects were avidly collected during this period by artists and intellectuals, who were aware of the gradual disintegration of peasant culture in Russia and eager to preserve its artifacts.

Through a rich array of some 70 paintings, related folk art objects and works on paper, the exhibition and catalogue make clear the intermingling of "high" and "low" forms of visual culture during this exciting phase of avant-garde production.

A beautiful little book about one of the Ashmolean's most famous paintings at a time when the Ashmolean is very much in the spotlight

The Hunt in the Forest is the foundation of the Ashmolean's distinguished collection of old master paintings, and a magical and enigmatic picture. The artist, Paolo Uccello, had a lifelong interest in geometry and perspective, and together with his skill in depicting animals and landscape this helped to form this jewel-like swansong from the last decade of his career.

This book, written by Dr Catherine Whistler, examines Uccello's life and work, the process of making The Hunt in the Forest, the subject of the painting, its original setting, and its use of perspective and rhythm.

Contents:
Paolo Uccello: life and work
The making of The Hunt in the Forest
The subject of the painting
The original setting of the painting
Perspective and rhythm in The Hunt in the Forest

Aboutthe Author:

Dr Catherine Whistler is a curator in the Department of Western Art, Ashmolean Museum. She is responsible for the collections of Italian and Spanish paintings and drawings and the textile collection, and her curatorial duties include work on exhibitions, gallery displays and the planning of paintings conservation. Apart from the Ashmolean's collections, her research interests lie in 18th-century Italy and Spain.

Gauguin began his artistic life as an Impressionist in Paris, but yearning for a wider world view he experimented with decorative art and bright colours to create what some have termed Symbolism. He painted briefly with Van Gogh but was strongly drawn by the “otherness” of the South Pacific to which he travelled frequently, and finally settled far away from his origins and early influences to create a unique and intensely personal body of work. This beautiful new book revels in the scenes of Tahiti, the sunlit bodies, the shapes and styles of the South Pacific each of which have secured him a unique place in the history of art.

A comprehensive, illustrative monograph on the life and work of Paul Klee
All of the masterpieces in one volume

Paul Klee (1879–1940) is one of the most important representatives of modern art. His oeuvre is as universal as it is individual, standing tall among all of the currents and “isms” of his day. His overwhelming body of paintings, drawings, and other visual works; his letters, journal entries, and, last but not least, his teaching notes form the background for this pointed depiction of the life and work of the meditative artist and visual thinker.
This richly illustrated volume traces Klee’s eventful biography, ranging from his artistic beginnings with caricature-like drawings and nudes, his encounter with the avant-garde and the famous watercolors from his journey to Tunisia, the abstract color compositions from the Bauhaus era, to the mysterious, inventive images of his last years in Bern.

As an avant-garde artist of the twentieth century, painter Paul Klee's work defies classification. What is indisputable, however, is its originality and brilliance. Taken from the artist's most prolific years,1917-1933, this book presents works that Klee never intended to sell. More than 100 color plates reveal Klee's chromatic genius and wide stylistic range. Along with an indepth biography, the book features three essays, which examine Klee's versatility, place him in context with his contemporaries, and discuss his process for cataloging his works. The result is a unique and far-reaching exploration of one of the twentieth century's most important and admired artists, at the most fecund stage of his career.

Art critic and scholar Philippe Dagen approaches Picasso as a subject through a series of questions. What does it mean to be an artist in the twentieth century? What does it mean to be an artist in the time of newspapers and museums, in a time when the art market has expanded to reach the entire western world? Is modern civilization so different that it gives an artist a new attitude and causes him to redefine his role for the public, the market, and, therefore, to invent entirely new artistic practices?

Picasso is considered here in view of this last, and most probable, hypothesis. He is a product of his situation and time, in the broadest sense of the term. Refusing to confine himself to his studio or the small artistic community in Paris, Picasso responded forcefully to world affairs, giving pictorial and sculptural form to the passions and events he witnessed around him. This is a thoroughly modern Picasso, constantly and consciously confronting the modernity of the world.

Dagen's original exploration of his techniques, materials, and images shows how the artist both allowed modernity to infiltrate his work and at the same time to react against it. Picasso moved between acceptance and rejection, a perpetual confrontation that is, perhaps, the most satisfying explanation of his will to create change that drove him to leave the most varied and diverse body of work in the entire history of art.

About the Author:

Philippe Dagen is an art historian, professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, critic for the newspaper Le Monde, curator, and novelist. He has published and contributed to numerous titles on art history, including George Grosz: Berlin-New York, Otto Dix: The War, and Bettina Rheims: Can You Find Happiness.

"I wanted to be a painter, and I became Picasso," declared Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) in an apt survey of a triumphant career.

He had good grounds for the confidence palpable in his statement, for in the history of 20th century art, his name stands out over all the others. In Picasso`s paintings, drawings, lithographs, ceramics, and sculptures, he was tirelessly inventive and innovative, exhibiting an aesthetic bravado that kept him one step ahead of his contemporaries. From subject matter to new forms and techniques to new media, Picasso got there first. The Spanish artist's enormous output, from the eight-year-old's beginnings to the late work of a man of ninety-one, is surely one of the most diverse and creatively energetic in the whole history of art, and it is no exaggeration to see him as the genius of the century.

Carsten-Peter Warncke's study is a thorough review of Picasso's entire oeuvre, from the early Blue and Rose Periods, through the analytic and synthetic cubism and classicist phase all the way up to the art of the old savage Picasso.

"I wanted to be a painter, and I became Picasso," declared Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) in an apt survey of a triumphant career. He had good grounds for the confidence palpable in his statement, for in the history of 20th-century art, his name stands out over all the others. In Picasso`s paintings, drawings, lithographs, ceramics, and sculptures, he was tirelessly inventive and innovative, exhibiting an aesthetic bravado that kept him one step ahead of his contemporaries. From subject matter to new forms and techniques to new media, Picasso got there first. The Spanish artist's enormous output, from the eight-year-old beginnings to the late work of a man of ninety-one, is surely one of the most diverse and creatively energetic in the whole history of art, and it is no exaggeration to see him as the genius of the century. Carsten-Peter Warncke's study is a thorough review of Picasso's entire oeuvre, from the early Blue and Rose Periods, through the analytic and synthetic cubism and classicist phase all the way up to the art of the old savage Picasso.

Our study of Picasso, the most exhaustive record of his work to date, contains almost 1500 illustrations - from his earliest drawings to the master's very last painting.

A groundbreaking study of Pablo Picasso, it documents all Picasso's major works from 1917 to 1937 including La Suite Voillard from the National Gallery of Canada. The title intends to be a metaphor. Harlequin can be anything you wish, a chameleon who constantly changes look and is never where we expect to find him, and Picasso, who could contemporaneously adopt the styles of cubism, neoclassicism, surrealism and expressionism, had many things in common with this legendary theatre character. Defined by some as a cannibal, a ruthless monster who devoured whatever he came across, Picasso was surprisingly all-inclusive. As a consequence he was, for a long time, an inevitable point of reference for many younger artists.

This lavish edition comes in three striking colour combinations that will be shipped to customers at random.

The Musée Picasso Paris, housed in the magnificent Hôtel Salé since 1985, includes more than 5,000 pieces, constituting the finest public collection of the artist’s works ever assembled. This definitive reference, which features an extensive album showcasing more than 450 of Picasso’s masterpieces, is arranged chronologically and by theme. It traces every stage in the development of his oeuvre, from the Blue Period to his late portrait The Young Painter (1972).

The museum’s authoritative team provides in-depth essays that examine Picasso’s paintings, as well as his proficiency in all artistic forms ― from sculpture or ceramics to photography, drawing, and engraving. His personal art collection and ephemera from his private archives provide insight into the great twentieth-century artist himself, and the comprehensive tome is completed with a detailed chronology.

The greatest works by prolific artist Picasso are reproduced in this massive cloth-bound volume that features a handsome slipcase, ribbon page marker, and is printed on three types of paper to present the diverse artworks to their best advantage.

A profound reassessment of Picasso’s dynamic later work, which shows the greatest painter of the twentieth century in a race with the time remaining to him.

No other painter has had such a more lasting influence on twentieth-century art than Pablo Picasso. Among the many phases and styles found in his oeuvre, his late period has a special position. His late paintings, featuring close-ups of the kiss and copulation, cling with all their might to sensuality and the embrace; they are marked by a great restlessness whose aim is to exorcise death itself. The “wild” paintings rapidly executed by his masterly hand are contrasts to his detailed, carefully executed drawings, which are dominated by a unique joy in narrative.

This volume, edited by Werner Spies, former director of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the most important Picasso expert of our day, examines almost two hundred works—paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures - shedding light on the special work methods and dialectics in Picasso’s later work. In particular, the exciting dialogue between painting and drawing, developed during his years in Mougins, shows that the greatest artist of the twentieth century was engaged in a race against time.

The Rizzoli Art Classics series brings you Piero della Francesca, Titian, Caravaggio, and Velázquez, all in beautifully illustrated monographs, offering high-quality reproductions in compact, accessible volumes.

These books feature a literary introduction by a renowned art historian, a thoroughly researched essay, and captions describing the artist's most famous canvases. A useful appendix section includes an extensive chronology of the artist's life and important historical events of his time; a compilation of writings by well-known historians, insight into each painter's stylistic development; a geographical table detailing the location of each painting in the book; and a concise bibliography with suggested further readings.

With an authoritative text by leading art historians, these lavishly illustrated editions provide fresh insight into the art and lives of some of the most fascinating artists in the history of painting.

Part of a new series of beautiful gift art books this book focuses on Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. Renowned especially for his style of painting that featured grids of black lines with blocks of primary colour, Mondrian was regarded as a true pioneer of abstract art. Featuring a fascinating introduction to Mondrian’s life and art, this stunning new book brings together a wide selection of his magnificent work.

The Complete Bruegel. New photography of the Dutch master’s works in XXL resolution
Sense of a Scene. Pieter Bruegel’s mastery of composition and community

Discover the complete works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the most significant artist of Dutch Renaissance painting. Marking the 450thanniversary of his death and his first-ever monographic exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, this XXL monograph gathers all 39 paintings, 65 drawings, and 89 etchings — each piece a unique witness to both the religious mores and the close-knit folk culture of Bruegel’s time.

The life and times of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569) were marked by stark cultural conflict. He witnessed religious wars, the Duke of Alba’s brutal rule as governor of the Netherlands, and the palpable effects of the Inquisition. To this day, the Flemish artist remains shrouded in mystery. We know neither where nor exactly when he was born. But while early scholarship emphasized the vernacular character of his painting and graphic work, modern research has attached greater importance to its humanistic content.

Starting out as a print designer for publisher Hieronymus Cock, Bruegel produced numerous print series that were distributed throughout Europe. These depicted vices and virtues alongside jolly peasant festivals and sweeping landscape panoramas. He would eventually increasingly turn to painting, working for the cultural elite of Antwerp and Brussels.

This monograph is a testament to Bruegel’s enlightenment as an artist, one who bravely confronted the issues of his day all the while proposing new inventions and solutions. Rather than idealizing reality, he addressed the horrors of religious warfare and took a critical stand against the Catholic Church. To this end, he developed his own pictorial language of dissidence, lacing innocuous everyday scenes with subliminal statements in order to escape repercussions.

This XXL-sized collection gathers all 39 paintings, 65 drawings, and 89 etchings, each piece a unique witness to both the religious mores and the close-knit folk culture of Bruegel’s time. We discover how, in spite of his early death, Bruegel’s work revealed a development against the tide of the Italian Renaissance. Surviving satirical verses and critical motifs illustrate the divide with his Rome-oriented fellow artists, admirers of Michelangelo and Raphael.

Marking the 450th anniversary of his death and his first-ever monographic exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, this monograph is the most immersive journey into Bruegel’s unique visual universe.

About the Authors:

Jürgen Müller has worked as an art critic, a curator, and a visiting professor at various universities, and has published extensively on cinema and art history. Currently, he holds the chair for art history at the University of Dresden. Müller is the editor for TASCHEN’s movies by decade series.

Thomas Schauerte manages the Albrecht Dürer House, the City Museum, and the art collections at the Museums of the City of Nuremberg. He is a graphic design specialist and teaches at the universities of Erlangen and Regensburg.

Piranesi's fantastic worlds. The great 18th-century architectural artist and master engraver

One of the greatest architectural artists of all time, and certainly the most famous copper engraver of the 18th century, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) is best known for his terrifyingly original series of etchings of labyrinthine and megalomaniac prisons, Carceri d’Invenzione. In his own day, he was most celebrated for his Vedute, 137 etchings of ancient and modern Rome; so renowned were these startling and dramatic chiaroscuro images, imbued with Piranesi’s romantic feeling for archaeological ruins, that they formed the mental picture of Rome for generations after. Indeed, Piranesi could be said to have shaped a whole strain of contemporary architecture, as well as the wider visualization of antiquity itself. In our time, he has had a direct influence on writers such as Borges and Kafka and on filmmakers such as Terry Gilliam and Peter Greenaway. Anyone who contemplates Piranesi’s etchings will confront the existential nightmare of human existence and its infinite mysteries.